Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-04-29
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE's SUN
DAY SERMON
Subject: What is the Moral EfrccI
of Secret Societies ?"

1t appears that in SOlomons time as in ali
subsequent periods of the world there were
people too much disposed to tell all they knew
II was blab, blab, blab; physicians revealing
the case OF their patients lawyers exposing
the private affairs of their clients neighbOTs
advertising the faults of the next door resi-
dent, pretended friends betTaying condolences
One-halt of the trouble of every community
comes from the fact that so many people have
no capacity to keep their mouths shut
When | hear something dispaTaging OF you
my first duty is not to tell you But if tell
you what somebody has said against you,
and then go out and tell everybody else what
told you, and they go out and tell others
what told them that told yOu and we all
go out some to hunt up the originator of the
story and Others to hunt it down, we shall get
the whole community talking about what
you did do and what you did not do and
there Will be as many seal ps taken as though
band of Modocs had swept upon a helpless
village. We have two ears but only one
tongue, a physiological suggestion that we
ought to hear good deal more than we tell
Let us join conspiracy that we will tell
each other all the good and nothing Of the
Ill, and then there will not be such awful need
of sermons on Solomon's words: "Disrover
not a secret to another
Solomon had u very large domestic circle
In his earlier days he had very confused no
tlonS about monogamy and polygamy and
ms multltud1nouS associates i'll the matrimo-
NAL state kept him too well informed as to
what was going on in Jerusalem They gath.
cred up all the privacieS of the city and
poured them into his ear, and his family he
came Sorosis, or female debating society of
7OO, discussing day after day all the Difficult
ties between husbands and wives, between
employers and employees, between rulers and
subjects until Solomon, in my text, deplores
Volubllity about affairs that do not belong to
us and extols the virtue of secretiveneSS.
by the power of secret diyulged families,
churches, neighborhoods, nations fly apart
BY the power of secret kept great charities,
soclaItleS, reformatory movements and Chris
tan enterprises may be advanced Men are
gregarlous--cattle in herds fish in schools
birds in focks, men in social circles You
may by the discharge Of gun scatter
flock OF quailS, or by the plunge of
the anchor send apart the denizens of the
sea, but they will gather themselves together
again. If you, by some new power, could
break the associations in which men now
stand, they would again adhere God meant
1t so. He has gathered all the flowers and
shrubs into associations. You may plant one
forgetmenot or heart's-ease alone, away or
upon the hillside, but it will soon hunt
up some other forget-me-not or hearts
ease PIantS love company. You will find
them talking to each other in the dew A
galaxy of stars is only d mutual life inS,Ir-
ance company. You sometimes see a man
with no out branchngs of sympathy His
nature is cold and hard like a ships mast
ice-glazed, which the most agile sailor
could never climb Others have u thousand
roots and a thousand branches In
Vulnerable tendrilS climb their hearts,
and blossom all the way up, and the fowls
OF heaven sing in the branches In conse
quence of this tendency we find men coming
together in tribes, in communities in churches
IN societies. Some gather together to cult
vate the arts, some to plan for the welfare OF
the State, some to discuss religious themes
some to klndle their mirth, some to advance
their craft. So every active community is
divided INTO associations of artists, Of
merchants, of bookbinders, of carpenters OF
masons, OF plaSterers, of shipwrights Of
plumbers. Do you cry out against it2 Then
you cry out against tendency divinely inn
planted. Your TRADES would accomplish no
more than If you should preach to busy
ant-hlll or beehive long sermon against
secret societies
Here we find the oft-discussed question
whether associations that do their work with
closed doors and admit their members by
passwords, and greet each other with a
secret grip are right or wrong ] answer
that it depends entirely on the nature of the
object for which they meet Is it to pass
the hours in revelry, wassail blasphemy
and obscene talk, or to plot trouble
to the State, or to debauch the in
nocent, then l say with an emphasis
that no man can mistake: mol But is the
object the defence of the rights of any class
against oppression, the Improvement of the
mind, the enlargement Of the heart, the ad-
vancement of art the defense of the govern
ment, the extilpation of crime or the kind
ling of pure-hearted sociality, then | say.
with just as much emphasis: Yes
There is no need that we who plan for the
conquest of right over wrong should publish
to all the world our intentions. The General
OF an army never sends to the opposing
troops information of the coming attack
Shall we who have enlisted in the cause of
GOD and humanity expose our plans to
the enemys No! we will in secret
P0' s sae ANA Of bs all t the enterprises
they expect us by day, we will fall upon them
by night. While they are strengthening
their left wing we will double up their right
BY plan of battle formed in secret conciave
we will come suddenly upon them crying:
1.-THE sword of the Lord and of Gideon7n
Secresy of plot and execution are wrong
only when the object and ends are
netarlous. Every family is a secret
society, every business firm and every
banking and insurance institution Those
men who have no capacity to keep
secret are unfit for positions of trust any
where. There are thousands of men whose
vital need is culturing a capacity to keep a
secret Men talk too much, and women too.
There is time to keep silence as well as a
time to speak
Although not belonging to any of the great
secret societies about which there has been
so much violent discussion, I have only words
of praise for those associations which have for
their object the maintenance of right against
wrong, or the reclamation of inebriates, or,
like the score of mutual benefit societies.
called by different names, that pro
vide temporary relief for widows and
orphans, and for men incapacitated by sick
ness or accident from earning a livelihood
MT hnan for ha hos, 20
secret labor organizations in this country
monopoly would long ago have, under its
ponderols wheels ground the laboring
classes into an intolerable servitude
The men who want the whole earth
to themselves would have got it be-
fore this, had it not been for the
banding together of great secret organiza
tonS And, while we deplore many things
that have been done by them, their existence
Is necessity, and their Legitimate sphere dis
tlnctly pointed out by the providence of God
Such organizations are trying to dismiss from
their association all members in favor Of
anarchy and social chaos They will gradu
ally cease anything like tyranny over their
members and will forbid violent interference
with any mans work whether he belongs to
their union or is outside Of it, and will declHrs
their disgust with any such rule as that passed
In England by the Manchester Brickayers'
Association, which SAYS any man found run.
ming or working beyond n regular speed,
shall be fined two shilings and six
pence for the first ofTense, five shil
lings for the second, ten Shillings for the
third and If still perssting shall be dealt with
as the committee think proper. There are
secret societies in our colleges that have letters
of the Greek alphabet for their nomenclature,
and their members mt the very front in
scholarship and irreproachahle in morals,
while there are others the scene of caronsal,
and they gamble and they drink,
and they graduate knowing hundred